According to ITProPortal, the UK’s Student Loans Company (SCL) was hit by more than 5,000,000 email attacks last year, new figures from Griffin Law suggest. Data obtained via a Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request suggests the organisation encountered 10,125 malware attacks and 19,188 phishing attacks – the remaining 5,415,960 were spam. The SCL says it managed to successfully defend itself from all the attacks.
The Student Loans Company may not have been targeted specifically per se, but they have certainly had their fair share of cyberattacks. However, it must be noted that they have impressively thwarted the attacks, especially given that it is usually down to the individual employee to spot a phishing email. This is a direct outcome of good training and a shift in cyber security culture.
As these emails become more targeted, employees need to be extra vigilant and start by using a zero trust policy across the business. Phishing emails can cause havoc in a company and tend to start with the human layer as it is so often the weakest.